Open Always Room for Improvement

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Getting on to the team, even as an alternate had been a dream come true for Minnie. Her heart had swelled at receiving the news and she had immediately told her parents about it in a long letter, in which she had described blow by blow what had happened. She had thought it would be good, that her parents would be pleased with her. She had had a good first week at the school, she had done all her homework, won extra house points and she had gotten a position on the team, second string but it was a position nonetheless. But, the letter she’d received that morning had not been as glowing as she’d expected. It had clearly been penned by both of her parents and they had congratulated her on the position, but Minnie could tell that they weren’t as happy as they were saying they were. She had read how they were surprised that she’d gone for seeker when she would be better as a chaser, that they were pleased she’d gotten second string but, perhaps if she had tried for chaser or if she’d caught the snitch earlier she might’ve gotten a full position on the team. They had reinforced in their letter that she couldn’t lag behind in her studying, that she had to keep religiously to the schedule that they had, because a few extra points at the beginning wasn’t going to be enough. She’d in her letter, talked a little about the some coming halloween celebrations, which her parents reminded her, was not a part of their agreed plan, making it clear that they didn’t want her to go. All in all, it hadn’t been a letter that Minnie had expected.​

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Her frustration over it, had dragged her out of the school and to the quidditch pitch. She was supposed to spend this time revising for the next class she had, completing homework and doing a few of the extras that her parents expected of her. No, she was frustrated and the books she knew would not help her. She needed to get better at quidditch, she liked flying. She liked sports, it had always broken up her days at home, more so than the running or anything else. Minnie reached the quidditch pitch and put down the broom next to her. She had changed into more suitable quidditch gear, discarded the letter in the dorm room. Why couldn’t they have just said congratulations and left it at that. Why couldn’t they just be proud of her, it was only the beginning of her school career. She hadn’t even wanted to go to the halloween celebration, but her parents telling her she wasn’t allowed made her reconsider. Why were they still trying to control each part while not even there. Minnie stretched on the pitch, she didn’t want to injury herself before even getting started. She shot up into the air, steading out the broom, and slowing her pace to a more manageable one. She couldn’t be reckless, that wouldn’t be a good idea. Minnie was beginning to feel better, and knew that the more laps she did she’d feel better and better. She just needed to put all of her frustration and energy into flying rather than letting herself spiral.​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric was bored, and homesick, and frustrated. He had known that going to this school would be awful and a mistake, but his mother hadn't listened to him when he had tried to tell her. He knew she wanted him to connect with their extended family, but Eric couldn't understand why. His cousins were the children of his mother's brothers, the ones who had abandoned her to live on her own without much support. Eric had always been envious of classmates at his old school who had large extended families. In his mind, it was something he associated with wealth as well. Many of them had shown off toys at school that they had received from their grandparents, aunts and uncles, or their parents. Eric's mum was the only person he'd had since their father had left, and she didn't often have a lot of money to spare. He didn't mind, nor blame her for it. But it made no sense that she was so easy to forgive family that had never been there for them.

He had tried to occupy some time by skipping stones on the lake. It had been fun for about five minutes, then it had just made him miss his brother. Connor would have done something like that with him if they had been at home. After a while, he had wandered off to the Quidditch pitch. He associated the place with his annoying oldest cousin, the one who taught flying here. He hardly understood why she was a professor. She was so young. Probably because she was related to the minister or something. How he loathed his family. He wondered if he could pull some kind of prank on her in the future. Maybe he could buy something at the joke shop during the Brightstone weekend. Perhaps he could scope out the Quidditch pitch and think of something he could do. The boy wandered onto the pitch with that vague idea in his mind, but was quickly distracted by a girl flying around. He watched her for a moment, then realized it was the annoying girl with the book he had met before. Eric scowled, stuffing his hands into his pockets. As he did so, he found a few pebbles he had put in there earlier by the lake. A smile appeared on his face, and he acted without thinking. He gripped one in his hand, then threw it at the girl. "Hey!"

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie didn’t have time to mess around, the girl needed to improve, needed to get better. She was doing some laps building some speed. She was an alternate seeker which meant she had to be quick and nimble. If she’d gotten a different position she would’ve spent a little more time doing other things, but for a seeker you just had to be able to look and see things. She had to be able to spot a snitch in amongst the rest of it. It would be a little easier to practice that now, when there were very few other people. Minnie would do more laps and then get the practice snitches. She would be able to work towards improving all round with that. The girl was however distracted for a brief moment by someone saying hey, she draw to a stop and looked towards them, realising too late that it was the annoying boy from the park, and realising that with the hey, came a pebble. Minnie felt it whiz past her ear, and looked towards the boy. The ravenclaw flew closer to him, ”What are you doing?” she shouted, both because she was annoyed at him and because she wasn’t that close to him. ”That is so dangerous, you could take my eye out,” the girl was still pretty annoyed by their last interaction and she was annoyed with him now. Why was he so intent on just being a jerk, on physically harming things, including her, and throwing things. ”What is wrong with you?” she finished with an exacerbated sigh. She didn’t understand this boy, why was he like that. ​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric had been a bit bored and restless, so a confrontation with this girl seemed like the perfect way to spend some time. He grinned as he nearly hit her, and grabbed his last pebble to attempt again. But before he could, she shouted at him and flew closer, so he simply tossed it into the air and caught it again carelessly. "What? I'm just helping you practice." He said with a grin. "I had no idea you could fly, aren't you too busy reading sappy girly books for that?" He had assumed she was just some sort of nerd, but it seemed like she liked to fly as well. She wasn't bad at it either, which was actually kind of annoying. "I wouldn't take your eye out if you're decent at dodging." He added, tossing the pebble up again and catching it. "There's nothing wrong with me, I just thought I'd spice up your boring practice a bit. Are you on the team or something?" He frowned a little, wondering if that could be the case. He had heard first years rarely made the team, so he hadn't even bothered to try. He probably wouldn't try anyway, because he knew he hadn't done very well on teams in the past. It still frustrated him that he had been kicked off the rugby team he had been a part of, just because he got a little angry sometimes. It wasn't like he could help it.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie rolled her eyes at him, ”Just because you only have one skill doesn’t mean everyone else does,” she had a slight hint of boasting in her tone, she could fly, she was on her house team, she was better than him, he couldn’t make her cry like the last time. The broom was important and if he made her fall that would probably make her cry but she wouldn’t let him do that to her. She was better than him at flying, rolling her eyes a little at him. ”Okay, then get a broom, and fly against me then,” the girl challenged. She didn’t know if this boy could fly, but if he really wanted to annoy her and help her practice then perhaps she could convince him by annoying him into flying with her. The girl nodded at the further question, ”I am, I’m the alternate seeker for Ravenclaw,” she added boasting again. She was making sure that her timetable was well rounded, that she was engaging in all manner of activities and making sure that she stuck to her parents schedule, it didn’t matter that as of yet her parents hadn’t congratulated her on her position. Perhaps once she’d been in a game she would be able to tell them about it and then they’d be proud of her. But, this stupid boy didn’t need to know anything about that. ​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric snorted. "I have tons of skills." He snapped at the girl, then he frowned. "What do you think my one skill is, anyway?" She had admitted he had one, though he doubted she really knew anything about him. He was surprised and a little annoyed when she challenged him to fly with her, and he scowled at her. She knew he couldn't say no without looking weak. "Fine." He said, wondering vaguely what he was getting himself into. When the girl said she was alternate seeker for Ravenclaw, he sneered. "Only cause no one in Ravenclaw can actually fly. Their standards are low." He said before walking away to grab a broom. He returned with the one from the broom shed that looked the newest, though it wasn't in great condition. He swung his leg over the broom and kicked off. He had flown before, but didn't make much of a habit out of it. Still, he was sure he could prove himself better than her.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie rolled her eyes at him, ”I think your one skill is causing unnecessary trouble,” she had seen him in classes, their first interaction had just been him causing trouble with her than had been unnecessary. But she was a little pleased that he accepted her invitation to fly with him. He made a slight comment towards her being part of the quidditch team, but she didn’t really care. She didn’t care what he thought, it was a good thing that she’d already managed a spot on the team, it was maybe not the position she had hoped for, since she’d wanted to get on the team rather than not. She could assume that was the reason why her parents hadn’t congratulated her on the position. But, at least she could focus on this, with him, to just engage in a competition where she didn’t actually had to prove anything but just felt like she should. This boy had upset her the first time they’d met, was not only fair that she try to beat him now. The girl steadied her broom and watched him, ”Do you want to race?” the girl didn’t want to break any rules but there weren’t any rules to break here and if something happened she doubted either would want to admit what had caused it.​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric snorted at the girl's comment. "Sometimes trouble is necessary. Things can't be perfect all the time." He challenged, though he doubted she would agree. She seemed to be the type of person who was perfect at everything, and couldn't handle some things being a bit messy or unorganized. He hovered in the air and watched her carefully, wondering what she was going to do. It would be humiliating to lose to her, but that wasn't something he had really considered before agreeing to fly with her. Somehow, it hadn't occurred to him that if she was on the team, she probably had more practice flying than him. It didn't help that he hadn't been going to his stupid cousin's lessons lately, so he was pretty out of practice. But it was too late to back out now. "Have fun looking at my back the whole time." He said. "You're on." Then, without waiting for her, he sped off. He hoped that this advantage would help him win, even if she would probably say it wasn't fair. It wasn't like they had agreed on any rules.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie rolled her eyes at him, ”Rules and laws exist for that to never be necessary,” she retorted. Of course he thought that trouble was necessary. Breaking the rules was never necessary, it didn’t matter than she had on a few occasions since coming to school had broken some of her parents rules but that didn’t matter, they were rules she could argue against and the only ones that she could. Laws and school rules were a whole other matter. She watched as he got on his broom and then after a little taunt just shot off, of course he would, this boy was so dumb. It would just help that she flew a lot and had such a deep desire to win that not even a beat after he’d left she shot off too. Racing towards where he was, just behind him until there was a little bend and she was able to draw her broom to go faster and be right next to her. She urged the broom fast focusing solely on what was in front of her. She needed to win, there was so much she just had to prove, she just needed to be better than this dumb boy who had so little respect for everything, she just had to show him and that would prove that she was worthy of the position she’d gotten, proven to be better, that their lack of praise or congratulations would be as unjustified as it felt. This boy didn’t understand any of that. ​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric laughed at her. "Are you a robot? Rules and laws? What kind of kid cares about that." He scoffed, wondering whose words this girl was repeating. It definitely didn't seem like something someone her age would think of on their own. "Have you ever done anything against the rules, just for fun?" He asked her, knowing the answer was likely going to be no. Eric flew off, eager to stay ahead of her. He was just feeling fairly good about his flying when he realized she was catching up to him. He cursed, not caring that she may hear, and glared sideways at the girl as she caught up with him. It soon became clear that her practice was paying off in her favor, and she slowly moved ahead of him. Eric growled in frustration and flattened himself on his broom, trying to catch up. But it was to no avail.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie rolled her eyes at him, but nodded, there was no need to go into the details of how and when she had gone against the rules just for fun. It hadn’t been often and she was sure that it wouldn’t match up to what he probably thought since she knew they both had very different ideas about what certain things were. Minnie was level with him for more of their race, but managed to pull ahead, all of the quidditch practicing was clearly paying off and making her better than him at this. She would lying if she didn’t admit that she liked it. That she really enjoyed. She stopped when she finally reached the so-called finish line that they had set. The girl drew to a stop and looked back around to Eric and let a satisfied smirk, she was sure he wasn’t going to be happy about losing to her, but she was very pleased with it. She liked being better than others but she specifically liked being better than him. He had thought she wouldn’t be good at this, but he was wrong.​

 

[Eric Holland]

As soon as Minnie moved past him completely, Eric knew he was screwed. Why hadn't he considered that someone on the Quidditch team would be better at this than him? Why had he challenged her at all? Both furious with himself and with her, he grit his teeth and tried his best to keep up. He could at least make his loss less humiliating than it could be. But Minnie finished quite a bit before he did, and Eric was annoyed. "Whatever. Nobody cares about this." He snapped at her, trying to hide how out of breath he was. He touched down onto the ground and threw the broom onto the grass. He didn't care. It wasn't his anyway. "I have better things to do. Enjoy hanging out by yourself like a loser." He snapped at her.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie was pretty pleased that she had managed to win against Eric in this little competition, but it seemed that unsurprisingly he was a bit of a sore loser. Minnie rolled her eyes at him, ”God, why am I even remotely surprised that you’re a sore loser,” the girl snapped back with a roll of her eyes. She flew down to the ground and just watched him. ”I was enjoying hanging out by myself, you interrupted that,” she threw back at him, she hadn’t been looking to hang out or have fun, she’d been looking to practice and practice hard. Get better at this sport and show her own worth with it when it came to the games so that her parents could be proud of her for it. ”I could help you, you know, since you know, I can actually fly well,” she was almost certain he would say no, throw it back in her face with a snide comment attached, but she would offer, do the right thing by actually offering to help. Even if he was a jerk who was a sore loser and was always just trying to annoy her. Helping someone get better at quidditch would help him in the long run. ​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric snapped at her. "I'm NOT." He insisted, even if he knew he was angry about losing. "I'm just mad I wasted my time on this stupid race." He added, his annoyance clear. It frustrated him that she was insisting he interrupted her, but also then offered her help. He sneered at her, putting all his annoyance and anger in it. She needed to be knocked down a peg, as her winning against him was clearly making her arrogant. "Like I'd want your help." He told her contemptuously. "The only thing you could teach anyone is how to be a friendless nerd. And an annoying one too."

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie frowned at him when he snapped at her, rolling her eyes when he was just proving her point in being a sore loser, by denying he was even annoyed about it. She flinched lightly at his tone when he continued, surprised by the harshness of it. The words he used stung. She didn’t know what she bothered with him, she didn’t know why she’d even offered her help when he just threw it back in her face with a harsh tone and words. She blinked rapidly, she could have friends if she tried, she didn’t have the time for friends. She didn’t have time for anything of the sort. That was why she didn’t have any. His words were always harsh but that after her victory and her offer to help an olive branch to him it stung more. ”Fine,” she replied wiping at her eyes as she walked past him. He was always so mean, he was always so frustrating. She hated that this was the second time he’d made her so upset. She didn’t say anything more to him just left the quidditch pitch without glancing back once. ​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric was angry about losing and angrier about challenging this girl. Why had he done it? He should have known she would be better than him. Somehow, he hadn't expected his words to actually affect her. She had seemed so sure of herself that he hadn't expected to actually get to her. He ignored the twinge of pity he felt when he saw she was blinking quickly, and chose to simply look away. It wasn't his fault that she was weak enough to be hurt by a few words. That was on her. But he felt uneasy, and was glad when she walked past him. He watched her go for a moment, troubled, then looked away again. He tried his best not to think about this anymore, kicking at the grass until Minnie had left.